An article by W. George Schmid in The Hosta Journal  (1996 Vol. 27 No. 2) states that This is a duplicate, incorrect or outdated name for Hosta montana 'Shirobana Oba'.

Mikiko Lockwood in an article on The Hosta Library titled, A Little About Japanese Hosta Terms defines the term shirobana as white flower and the term oba or ooba as large leaf or 'Oba Gibōshi' which is the Japanese name for the species H. montana.